I'm going back through what comprised my senior year of high school and first semester of college in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Come along for the ride. New posts every day or so mixed in with other things.
July 2, 1985. I don't know for sure if it was this day, but it's a good a day as any to assign to this memory. It was a Tuesday before the holiday so there would be a good chance that there would be someone at Memphis State University to show me around. My Mother and Aunt Bea drove us into Memphis and soon I was on campus. If you've been reading this stuff since last year you know that I took the ACT and scored pretty decent on it. I hadn't been on a college track before taking the test, but suddenly I was applying at Memphis State, being accepted, and getting a dorm room assignment. My plan was to study mass communications and work in radio.
Why did I choose Memphis State? It's complicated. Which may be why it doesn't happen in the end. I was born in Memphis, but only lived there as a toddler. We would visit periodically during my childhood and it always impressed during the Seventies and early Eighties. It was the biggest city in Tennessee and I always yearned to get back to my place of birth. I was also a huge fan of the MSU Tigers basketball team. I could pay in-state tuition which was also a plus. I could get away from my parents, but still be close to other relatives.
We walked around campus with a young guy who showed me my dorm. It was typical of most dorms from the Eighties. Pretty spartan. I was much more interested in the library (which I recall was in a big towering building) and the mass communication program. I wish we had taken some photographs on this day, but we didn't. That's a real shame as after this visit we were headed to Beale Street at my request as I wanted to go to the Lansky Brothers store where Elvis had bought clothes and I wanted to visit the A. Schwab store which was one of the few stores on Beale Street proper that hadn't closed after most businesses left in the Sixties.
We made it downtown and I saw the Elvis statue. Then I visited the Lansky store and there was lots of funky suits for sale. I think I did end up buying a shirt. I wanted to visit A. Schwab to buy some voodoo potions. My Aunt Bea was tickled to find they still sold old lady bloomers. It was a massive store filled with lots of strange items. I'm pretty sure I had learned of the store because of an interview with the Georgia rock band R.E.M. in either Creem or Rolling Stone magazines. Or maybe it was in an issue of the Tasty World fanzine which I loved. Ort knows!
Tomorrow I'll continue my Cinema One posts. And perhaps get back to Memphis and Mississippi after the holiday.
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